Photography is in the eye of the beholder...Part 2

In my previous post, I showed the 12 photos chosen by my instructor to hand in for my final grade in the photography class I am taking.

I would definitely have chosen some of the same ones, but there were others I would have chosen instead of the ones he did.

Below find 12 additional photos that I particularly liked from my photo class:
(If you click on any photo you will see enlargements of all images, but the photos that are horizontal will be scrunched from left to right, in a fun-house distorted way. Ugh)

"Afternoon Glow"
As I turned a bend on a walking trail one late afternoon, this is what I saw. I loved the shadows on the ground and the yellow orange of the winter-dried grass aglow in the setting sun against the cloudless blue sky.

"Boney Joe"
I called Boney Joe's Tattoo Parlor to ask if I could take some photos.
An employee assured me it would be OK, but when I arrived a few days
later, no one knew anything about my call.  But everyone was friendly
and allowed me to take photos. I didn't know the owner, but he looked
exactly as I expected a tattoo artist to be.

"From the Sea"
For my still life shots, I placed mat board across my sink and another propped in front of the faucet (which I turned back as far as it would go) because the 3-ringed florescent light above the sink seemed to be the best indoor light in my home. For additional light and to create shadows, I held a trouble light.  For this image, I used a metallic textured mat board, turned off the ceiling light and placed the trouble light on the counter to my right. Instead of using a tripod, I hand-held the camera directly above the objects. I love how the light captured the textures of the varied shells which I had picked up on the shores of the Outer Banks in North Carolina nearly 30 years ago. (As an artist, I have learned not to throw anything away. As a housekeeper, I am a disaster.)

"Library Windows"
I took this shot on a cold, rainy day. The image one can see through the window is not as interesting as what is on the inside.  I like how the warm colors of the paint, light, and wood contrast with the drab cool colors of the outdoors., and I like the reflection of the light appearing in the windows. This is not a spectacular image, but I like its simplicity and composition. 

"Pears"
For my first few still life photos, I tried to put too many things into the images.  I decided I needed to aim for simplicity.  I shopped for fruits and vegetables, and purchased this placemat. I like how the placemat's lines draw one into the photo. I lined up pears in various ways, but preferred this composition with four in a row with one red pear on its side and off-center. In the end, my simpler photos are more interesting and elegant than the ones with more objects in them.  The mat board behind the pears was actually a grayish blue, but the warm trouble light I used to create shadows made it look rather mauve in the photo.  In Photoshop, I changed it back to blue, but liked this warmer hue better.

"Reflections"
This is the image of the front window of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. I like how the image is multi-layered. One sees the window, as well as the museum's café through the window, the fountain immediately outside the window, the street which is beyond the steps in front of the museum, as well as buildings across the street. One of our assignments was "Through the Window." I am guessing that most people assumed the photos had to be taken from the inside to the outside. But I liked seeing "Through the Window" from the outside to the inside and to the outside again in this image.

"Shadows"
At the same park where I took "Afternoon Glow", I found a shelter with dozens of picnic tables,  I placed my camera near my feet, facing the sun. I liked the patterns of the table legs and the shadows they created on the concrete floor.  Since this image was almost all light and shadow, it was a good photo for my "Black and White Light" assignment.

"Spring Chickens"
I used a few dinnerware items of clear glass for many of my still-life photos.  I liked that there were no patterns on the dishes to distract from the objects placed in or on them. I wanted a dark surface for this photo. Besides black, the darkest mat board I had was a green faux suede which I thought would go well with the daffodil. I wanted to create reflections, so I place a sheet of glass on top of it.  Only when I viewed the photo on my computer monitor did I realize that it almost looks like green marble. Again, for this image, simplicity created a great composition. Egg shapes are so elegant.  No wonder Fabregé created his bejeweled eggs for the Russian  Tzar.

"Taxi"
I wanted to take some photos in auto wreckers' junkyards. I didn't call ahead because I thought they would refuse, but figured if I showed up and they saw I am a harmless older woman, they would allow me to take photos. Apparently most junkyards are open only by appointment. No one was at any of the locations, despite their "open for business" times listed online. I thought about calling from my cell, but figured they wouldn't show up if no sale was possible.  Most had chain-link fences surrounding their wrecks. At one place the fence had been pulled back enough that I could have slipped through, but decided I could be arrested for trespassing if someone showed up.  At one place, I saw this taxi on top of other cars not too far from the fence.  So I positioned my camera lens between the links of the fence and took several shots. On this dreary day, there was little color in the photo, except for the taxi, so I kept the taxi yellow and made the rest black and white. Everyone who sees this image wonders why the taxi, which on the surface looks to be in rather good shape, ended up here.  I questioned that when I took this photo and my husband asked the same question.. 

"The Artist"
My grandniece loves to dress up. Almost every time I visit, she is dressed like a princess, cowgirl, or ballerina.  One afternoon, after she and her mother arrived home (from kindergarden and work) I followed Sarah around snapping photos of her dressing up, drawing, playing with toys, demonstrating her yoga moves, changing outfits and generally hamming it up for the camera.  I'm not sure if she is hyperactive or not, but I was worn out following her around. After every photo I took, she wanted to see it on the camera's screen and had much to say about the quality of each shot.

"The Clearing"
When I did a 180 degree turn-around from where I shot "Afternoon Glow" this is what I saw. I liked the yellow-gold clearing surrounded by the tangled texture of trees and shrubs with just a hint of a house on the right. This was taken in winter (albeit a very mild one for this area.) Many dried leaves still held onto tree branches. I liked the warm browns, golds, and rust colors.

"Underpass"
I drive under a highway here several times a week. On several occasions in the late afternoon, I noticed the great sunlight hitting the concrete.  The concrete was light gray and the winter shrubbery was nearly gray, so I changed the image to gray scale to maximize the light and shadows.